Debates, not issues, are the newsmakers

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Ever notice that no matter
how much news is made among the candidates this primary season,
the debate itself tends to take center stage?

These men and one woman are vying to become leader of the
free world, and the headline last week was that CNN was duped
by a Clinton plant at the GOP-YouTube debate. CNN already had
gotten into trouble in November when it failed to disclose that
analyst James Carville was a financial supporter of the Clinton
campaign.

Last week, the Democratic National Committee canceled a
debate planned for Los Angeles and to be moderated by "CBS
Evening News" anchor Katie Couric. Although it was a casualty
of the writers strike, the cancellation robbed CBS of the
chance to get in on the debates that have been put on by all of
its rivals.

To a lesser extent, MSNBC and Fox News Channel also have
been the subject of debate-related stories that have nothing to
do with the issues. MSNBC's Tim Russert was criticized for his
questioning of Clinton in the October 30 debate. And Fox News
Channel had its own scrap this year with the Democratic
candidates when all it wanted to do was sponsor a debate.

"For almost all of these things, the postdebate stories
have been dominated by sidebars," says Tobe Berkowitz, dean of
Boston University's College of Communication.

CNN wanted to talk about its record ratings for its
Democratic debate November 15 in Las Vegas and its YouTube
debate Wednesday. But it was hard to crow when it spent so much
time on the defensive.

Berkowitz says he hasn't been impressed with CNN's debate
telecasts, starting with bringing the candidates onstage like
what he calls a game-show format.

"It's been show business. It's been a disservice -- how
many gimmicks we can pile into what should be the serious
business of democracy," he says.
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